By Natalie Sarabia-Johnston

At Southgate & Sarabia Architects we have aligned our practice with a community-based charity to help make a difference in our local communities.

Whilst 2020 is proving to be unchartered territory for all of us, we’re trying to focus on the things that will make a positive impact to peoples’ lives in the future. Our children, more than any group of our society, will remember these months. Leaving school and their friends to allow our emergency services to look after our most vulnerable members of our communities. When life is back to normal we want our children to have great spaces to reconnect, play and learn.

We’ve decided to work with Green Lane Primary Academy in Garforth, to help them design and deliver an outdoor play area, outdoor learning space, an area to grow food and a sensory garden for children, staff and families to go and sit, to contemplate or reflect on things that may be happening in life. We’re excited. And can’t wait to get started.

We’ve offered our architectural, urban design and landscape design services to work with the school, the kids and local artist, to design a vision for the project. Initial discussions have unlocked an idea of taking a well-known artist and taking inspiration from their work into the overall design.  Their use of colours and structures, initiating types and arrangement of plants, along with introducing sustainable ideas, recycling and re-use of materials will help kids make items that can be integrated into the design.

We want to use this design experience with the kids to support the school’s curriculum, by introducing art and sustainability, which are not core subjects but something the school is trying to implement as part of their learning programme.

We have offered our time for free and we’ll help Friends of Green Lane to raise money. If any of our colleagues, clients and associates would like to help out with materials, donations, time, then please contact me at natalie@southgate-sarabia.co.uk

Photo by Erda Estremer